Hayley Wickenheiser

There never was a lot going on in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan, afarming town 75 miles from the big-city lights of Swift Current,but at night there was nothing. No cars. No noise. Nothing. TomWickenheiser would stand in his backyard and spray water from ahose, back and forth, over and over, building a rink. He wasdoing what so many Canadian fathers of so many Canadian hockeyplayers--Orr and Howe, Gretzky and Lemieux, and the rest--haddone, providing not only the opportunity for winter fun but alsolaying out the slippery magic carpet that every once in a whilecarries a kid to fame, fortune and large arenas around the world.

There was one difference. Wickenheiser's rink was for hisdaughter, Hayley. There was no place the magic carpet could go.

"There was a time, I forget exactly how old Hayley was, when Isat her down," Tom says. "I tried to explain life. She was agood athlete in all sports--softball, volleyball, basketball. Itold her these were sports with an upside. She probably shouldconcentrate on them. Hockey, I said, really didn't have afuture. She said she didn't care. She wanted to play hockey."

Hayley Wickenheiser, the best woman hockey player in theworld--5'9", 170 pounds, strong and skilled, lethal with a slapshot--is only 19, but when she began playing, a female hockeyplayer was an aberration, a curiosity, even in a country teemingwith hockey players. For Hayley to dream about a future in thatsport seemed as unrealistic as to dream about riding a giraffeon the moon.

A pair of figure skates went unused after one or two trial runs.Hayley, 3, wanted hockey skates. Tom, a phys-ed teacher,believed all sports were good for personal development. Hockeyskates were purchased.

Until she was 12, Hayley played on boys' teams. She starred atevery stop along the way and was MVP of the gold medal game atthe 18-and-under Canada Winter Games in '91, but she was alwaysa marked player. Opposing coaches would ask their players, "Doyou want to get beaten by a girl?"

In 1990 two important things happened. One was that the firstwomen's world championship was held, in Ottawa. The final wasshown on TV; the Canadian team, in pink and white, beat the U.S.5-2 for the title. Suddenly there was a place for Hayley to go.She could play on this national team.

The second was that the Wickenheisers moved to Calgary, where ateam for girls had been started. Not only was there a place togo, but also a way to get there.

Now she is the star of Canada's world champion national team.She earns $1,875 a month. She is making a living off women'shockey! It is a radical concept. "Maybe it's not the money thatmen make," says Hayley, a distant cousin to Doug Wickenheiser,top pick in the 1980 NHL draft, "but we're professional hockeyplayers."